Nintendo Channel for Wii now available in North America

The Nintendo Channel, the interactive guide to Nintendo and Wii, has gone live in North America.

The channel is built to host a collection of promotional material and information for recent releases and upcoming games.

This will include trailers, documentaries, demo videos and future downloads.

American Wii gamers were sent the following message to let them know they could now get onto the channel:

Nintendo Channel is an interactive guide to what's new in the world of Nintendo - now available for easy download from the Wii Shop Channel. Watch trailers, mini-documentaries, product demonstrations, and gameplay videos.

Browse the game guide pages to get information about your favorite games on Wii and Nintendo DS. You can even click to order games straight from your Wii, if you have the Internet Channel installed. Make sure your Wii is connected to the internet, and get started!

Darren is Nintendo Life’s Batman: fearless in the face of danger, he loves gadgets and talking in a really, really deep voice. As Operations Director he stays mostly behind the scenes in a room he insists on calling “The Batcave”.

The interviews and the DS Demos were pretty cool. Being able to get recommendations for games from your peers is a plus. But everything else so far is a little blah. At times, I feel like I've downloaded a commercial (wait...trailers?).

I played the same demo of Ninja Gaiden:DS thats been at download stations for 6 months. The DS demos are okay at launch of the channel and 9 pages of (45ish) videos to start off is impressive. I hope we get wiiare/wii demos in the future as well. BENSEI You get a link on game's info page to a site on the internet channel where you can buy the game you are looking at. Wiiware titles link to the Wii Shop Channel. I'm just glad we got a new channel. Havent had one since summer/fall.

It's a pretty cool channel that I've been waiting for ever since Japan got it, but I was hoping it would have more DS demos than that. Where are some of the earlier games like Mario Kart DS and Brain Age 1? (although I already have those so it doesn't REALLY matter)

Well I believe it goes by the current DS Download Station Pack which has been changing constantly since its been invented and put in stores, so thats why it doesnt have some of the older DS games and why those games will probably be replaced in the future.

On the surface, this channel has a lot of potential. DS demos, trailers for games, recommendations - it even launched with an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto regarding Wii Fit.

But there's one thing that really irks me about this service. Something I was initially glad it does that Nintendo's official site is incapable of doing.

What I'm talking about is the preview videos for Virtual Console games. These videos had a lot of issues running properly on Nintendo's site, constantly being unavailable and in some instances, simply disappearing of the face of the earth. Checking out a gameplay vid can give you a good idea of what the game is like, and now that the Nintendo Channel is launched, all the vids that were up before but couldn't be seen are there for our viewing pleasure.

Or dismay.

Anybody actually watch some of these videos yet? Basic games like Super Mario Bros., Wonder Boy in Monster World and most shmups display the game being played, and does its job showing viewers what they'll be doing for most of the game. But games that are even slightly more complex show next to nothing. Want an example? Take a look at Nintendo's video for Sin & Punishment. It's a perfect example of a game NOT BEING PLAYED. Honestly, I'm glad I took a chance on this game when it came out and didn't watch this video. Because this video just makes me want to stay away from it.

I can't say that it doesn't have its bright spots. At the very least, this is what prompted me to find non-official sites like this one.

I like this channel a lot. There's a lot more videos than i thought, it makes me happy. Not like how the check mii out channel only had one contest avalible when it was released. But you can download or buy games right from the channel. To download, it takes you straight to the wii shop channel, to buy wii games, it takes you to a online buying site.'

So far you can only recommend titles, not write reviews for them. Like you can only say who you think best suites this game and what score you would give it, you can't actually write a review.

And the videos are nice quality, and take maybe 15 seconds tops to load a video. Usually it only takes 3 seconds. Also there's tons of videos, a few interviews a few comericals, and a lot of reviews. And you can chose to watch it in full or half screen.

And you can look up every single wii, VC, and DS game, and watch a video of them. So it's quite the worthy channel.

@Atlantis1982- I'd just like to mention that I have 34 VC games, 4 of which are N64, and I also have every Nintendo channel released except for THE Nintendo Channel. At that rate, it is VERY difficult to manage my memory well, especially since most of the games I'm currently playing are N64 games (most of the rest are SNES, but I'm also playing Kid Icarus and SMB3). Also consider Brawl's whopping 120+ blocks of memory. It is hard for me to handle my memory "more better" than everyone else. Fortunately, I got a ten dollar SD card that can hold all of my VC games and then some, so I can shop freely.

I also happen to have around 20+ VC games, all the channels excluding Mario Kart, and the big 'ol Brawl save file. Here is the thing that I do; I keep a certain amount of games on the memory. Problem solve.

I noticed that not every single Wii game is displayed in this channel. Specifically Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, and Manhunt 2 are missing... I wonder why? lolSome companies entire catalogues seem to be unratable. Capcom for instance insert conspiracy asbout bionic comando etc...

There are also some weird ones like Rayman Ravid Rabbids 2 being up for rating but nots its prequel

I, too, have noticed games missing. Like Metal Slug Anthology, Bust-A-Move, and Elebits, to name a few. This memory issue is getting rather irritating. I've deleted about 10 VC games now because of Brawl, Mario Kart Wii and now this. I have an SD card, but I like to have a plethora of games available to me and since I have to copy them back and forth, I have a few games that haven't been getting the love they deserve.

@Master K :That would be absolutely amazing. If it had that - even a crappy timed one like Brawl - it can potentially save people points. I know if I had a chance to play it beforehand, I wouldn't have bought The Dynastic Hero as it's an inferior clone of the great Wonder Boy in Monster World - ironically worth the same amount.Although 30 seconds of play time might not suffice. XP I think simple games could go for about a minute, more complex ones 3 or 5. I'm sure it'd be easy enough to do, but considering the back catalog they'd have, I don't know how many resources would have to be pooled for that.

@Objection Blaster:I was allowed to rate Carnival Games, Boogie and MySims, all not made by Nintendo. Granted, only one of those is decent, but that's not important. Also, I can't rate Pokemon Puzzle League, despite having played it for about 8 hours already. It seems to be the only VC game missing (from the ones I have) but I'm not sure if that's true as I have quite a bit now.

I hope they allow the reccomendation feature for all games. So far all the Nintendo games can be rated. Carnival game could as well and its not from Nintendo. I have played Resident Evil UC and Metal slug for over an hour but it still does not let me make reccomendation. Hope that changes in the future

That's just what everybody needs on their Wii consoles: ADWARE!!! I get most of my unbiased opinions from the Internet.

It's whopping bloated - 122 blocks of Wii data, plus 126 blocks for the save file, WTF? I had 402 blocks before, now reduced to 150-something. That, and also they spy on your gaming history (your daily play history is saved to the message board). Uhhg! This channel is going into the trash for me. It's bad enough that the Super Smash Brothers save file was 128 blocks (over 100 of which is useless wasted space if you opt to save all data to the SD card). I will most likely also have to dump "Sin & Punishment" once Wiiware is released on Monday...

I, for the first time in my life, deleted some games due to no MEMORY!!! Metroid Prime 3 channel (useless) is now gone, and so is Kid Icarus. Not great games, but just the fact that I had to delete them just sucks. I WANT A SOLUTION TO THIS!!!!!

I also happen to have around 20+ VC games, all the channels excluding Mario Kart, and the big 'ol Brawl save file. Here is the thing that I do; I keep a certain amount of games on the memory. Problem solve. "

No not really, you're taking the solution that many of us want to avoid donig, deleting games to make space for others, it's a pain in the ass, I'd like all my games available at once, without having to move them around on a SD card or re-downloading them! Hence why we want a HDD or something.

Nintendo channel takes a hefty 200-300 blocks so I deleted it, as I dont have a DS anymore and the videos are useless as I can see them on my PC quicker and easier.